The Presumpscot Regional Land Trust will hold its third annual Summer Trail Challenge, an event that encourages participants to visit six conservation areas between July 1 and Aug. 31.

Community Engagement Manager Brenna Crothers said the format of the challenge has been changed up a bit for 2025. In previous years, participants would email pictures of themselves at the conservation areas to Crothers. This year, a passport system will be employed. Participants can pick up paper passports at the town offices of Westbrook, Windham, Gray, Standish and Gorham, as well as outdoor fitness retailer REI and the land trust offices, both in Westbrook. At each location, there is a box of stamps that participants can use to stamp their passport as proof of having visited the location.

The prize, Crothers said, will be a water bottle offered by REI, customized with the Summer Trail Challenge logo. She said the land trust plans to double the amount of water bottles in its order, to avoid running out of bottles like they did last year. Crothers wondered if — since the water bottles had been offered for every year that the trail challenge has been offered — anyone has a water bottle for each of the years. Other partnerships for this year’s challenge include the Westbrook Community Center, the city of Westbrook, Portland Water District, and Windham and Gorham’s parks and recreation departments.

The challenge will cover six nature preserves in the Sebago Lake watershed, including East Windham Conservation Area, specifically an overlook with views of the White Mountains; Mill Brook Preserve in Westbrook; the newly built Diamond Trail Boardwalk at Windham’s Black Brook Preserve; Snake Pond in Standish, part of Portland Water District’s Sebago to Sea Trail; and the Gambo Preserve in Gorham, site of a former gunpowder mill that currently exists as a ring of stone.

Crothers said that last year, about 250 people completed the challenge, a significant jump from 50 in 2023. The hikes, she said, were relatively easy and accessible, but with a range of terrains. East Windham, she said, is particularly steep, while the Sebago to Sea Trail is extremely flat and accessible.

In terms of other land trust activities, Crothers said it has some events happening in June, including educational programs related to the ongoing alewife migration in the Mill Brook Preserve, and it’s hoping to start a meetup hiking program toward the end of the summer or beginning of fall. The trust will also host an event Sunday, June 22, at REI geared toward beginning hikers.

Learn more about the land trust at prlt.org.